Romney surges past Obama in second poll

Mitt Romney has overtaken President Obama in a Public Policy Polling survey released on Tuesday.

Romney won 49 percent support from likely voters in the poll, compared to 47 percent for Obama.

It’s the first time all year Romney has led in the poll, which was conducted on behalf of the liberal Daily Kos website and the Service Employees International Union. Obama led 49-45 percent in the group’s previous poll, conducted before last week’s debate.

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Romney was boosted in the poll by gains among female voters. Obama still leads 51 to 45 over Romney among women, but he had a 15-percentage-point lead in the previous poll.

It’s the second poll in a row to show Romney swinging to a lead following his historic trouncing of Obama at last week’s debate.

A poll released Monday by the Pew Research Center showed Romney with a 4-point lead nationally. In the Pew poll, Romney enjoyed an 18-point swing among female voters.

Romney also stretched his lead among independents in the PPP poll to 48 percent to 42. In the previous poll he led 44-41 among independent voters.

The first debate between Obama and Romney has significantly shifted momentum in the race.

According to Gallup, 72 percent of viewers said Romney won the debate, compared to only 20 percent who said Obama. It was the biggest margin of victory Gallup has ever recorded.

Both the PPP and Pew polls showed a big spike in the number of voters who identify as Republican, evidence that enthusiasm is up among the GOP in the wake of Romney’s strong performance.

Last week, 65 percent of Republicans told PPP they were “very excited to vote.” That number rose to 74 percent this week.

Daily Kos pointed out that the bulk of polling was conducted on Friday, “at the height of Romney’s bounce,” and said polling conducted Saturday and Sunday showed Romney’s lead had receded.

Obama had a 4-percentage-point advantage in the RealClearPolitics average of polls heading into the debate. Obama’s edge has been diminished to 0.5 percentage points in the latest RCP average.

The PPP poll has a 3-percentage-point margin of error.

Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated the advantage Romney has in the PPP poll.